#wherearethechildren?

The first 34 years of my career were spent on the front lines of child abuse in a pediatric hospital.

 I covered both the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and the Emergency room.

I was frequently the first person to whom a child disclosed abuse.

I've seen the range of expression a child's pain can take -

from being rendered incoherent with inarticulate moans and whimpers 

to being completely shut down emotionally, 

with clinically detached renditions of horrendous abuse

with absolutely no corresponding emotional expressions 

to match the details being provided.

For the past 3 years, I've coordinated a clinic for children in foster care; 

a clinic which tracks and follows children as they traverse the maze of the foster care system, 

with its multiple placements, ever changing caseworkers and hit or miss health care

.

In the 3 years the clinic has been in operation, we've seen over 1600 children. 

Because children enter foster care at a faster rate than they leave, 

we're still following almost 1200 and the numbers continue to rise.

Trust me, 

I know exactly how complicated a task it can be to follow children in foster care - 

and it's complicated even when the vast majority of children, staff and alternative caregivers 

speak the same language; 

its complicated even with licensing guidelines, inspection and oversight 

established for the facilities 

and caregivers entrusted with caring for these children.

It doesn't begin to cover the difficulties of monitoring secret shelters, 

shut off from regulations and monitoring by recognized child protection agencies.

What are the staff/child ratios?

Have all the providers had background checks

 to make sure staff caring for these kids at secret facilities don't have child abuse convictions?

Have these kids received medical care?

Are they getting mental health assessments?

Did someone speak to their parents long enough to obtain past medical histories?

I have seen first hand the toll that separation from biological families 

takes on a child's psyche and their physical well being - 

even when they are removed for their own safety 

due to an imminent risk of harm from their parents. 

Children love their parents - 

even if that attachments comes with the potential of a life threatening event.

All that past work experience and knowledge 

makes the situation playing itself out on our southern border 

feel like a sucker punch to the gut; 

it leaves me sick and breathless.

There's a sense of urgency to act - to do something -

to mitigate the damage being done to these children 

because I KNOW that this administration is inflicting lifelong damage 

under the guise of keeping us safe.

I don't need to be protected from a 2yr old child, a breastfeeding infant or even a 10 yr old.

(And for the love of God, can someone shut the President up when talking about MS13?

It's NOT a Mexican gang. It started in the 1980's in Los Angeles - and it is still smaller than the Crips, the Bloods and the Latin Kings. Of the hundreds of thousands of 'unaccompanied minors' coming  to the US since 2012, only 56 have been suspected of being tied, in any way, to MS13.)

The medical community has known for decades the impact of adverse childhood experiences 
upon a child's developing brain and body. 

Kaiser Permanente has developed and field tested a conceptual framework of measuring and quantifying the cumulative effect of childhood trauma.

 (Anyone interested in knowing more can go the the Center for Disease Control website 

and look at the ACES study).

Long story short - 

our government is doing irreparable damage to children - 

and this damage will last a lifetime.

I used to have a recurring nightmare that I had 'cleared' some child to go home from the ED

only to have that child re-victimized, raped or murdered 

by the same people to whom I released him/her. 

That nightmare has now been supplanted by the vision of a young, pre-verbal child

who, after weeks or months of traveling at night under harrowing conditions, 

with no consistent routine of sleeping and eating, 

arrives in a strange place, 

where no one speaks in a language they can understand, 

being torn away from their parents, 

placed in a cage where they are surrounded by other children 

screaming and crying 

or curled up silently in a fetal position; 

with no one smiling, touching, comforting or offering any type of solace.

What kind of world are we living in?

How can we allow this to go on in our name?

How is the government allowed to kidnap over 2000 children?

How are they allowed to transport them across state lines without parental consent?

It's human trafficking.

It's abduction.
It's state sponsored child abuse.

 It is morally reprehensible.

I don't understand why everyone isn't shouting on a daily basis.

#wherearethechildren?